Laparoscopic or electrosurgical instruments may have an insulated, conductive safety shield around an active electrode of the electrosurgical instrument. During surgery, the physician can monitor current passing through the shield to prevent the shield from causing unintended burns to the patient.
Various manners of monitoring the shield current are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,401 to Newton et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,269 to Newton et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,007,494 to Taylor et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 8,460,284 to Aronow, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
It should also be noted that, historically, the typical surgical equipment, including power supplies, signal processing, computer, and output devices are connected to a mains or line ground which is the same as the ground for the input power. Signals which come from points that are not referenced to mains ground must be isolated using floating power supplies and perhaps optical elements or transformers for the signals themselves. Further details of this construction are explained in U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,401 to Newton et al.
Although present devices are functional, their set-up and use require significant oversight by operating room personnel, and they are bulky and difficult to transport throughout the hospital. Accordingly, a system and method are needed to address the shortfalls of present technology and to provide other new and innovative features.